The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1887-09-09
Ingersoll and Young Men.

From the North American Review.
You feel strong in the strength OF a
robust manhood, well poised in body
and mind, and in the center Of d hap.
by home, where loving hearts cling to
you like vines around the oak. But
many to whom you speak are quite
otherwise. You address thousands
of young men who have come out Of
country homes, where they have been
brought up in the fear Of God. and
have heard the morning and evening
prayer. They come into city full OF
temptations, but are restrained from
evil by the thought OF father and
mother, and reverence for Him who Is
the Father of us ALA feeling which,
though it may not have taken the
form Of any profession, 3syer at the
bottom of their hearts, and keeps
them from many a. wrong and
wayward step. a young man who
is thus guarded and defended" "
as by unseen angels, some evening
when he feels very lonely, is invited to
ego and hear Ingersoll," and fos o
couple of hours listens TO your carlca-
lures of religion, with description OF
the prayers and psalm singing, Illus
trated dy devout grimaces and nasal
tones, which set the house In roars OF
laughter, and are received with tumai-
tuous applause. When it is all over,
and the young man finds himself again
under the haring lamps OF the city
streets, he is conscious OF change; the
faith OF his childhood has been rudely
torn from him, and with it a glory
has passed away from the EARTH" the
Bible which his mother gave him the
morning that he came away IS "a
mass OF fables;n the sentence which
she wished him to hang on the wall,
''Thou God, seest me" has lost it's
power; for there is no God that SECS
him, no more government, no law and
no retribution, So. he reasons as be
I walks slowly homeward, meeting the
temptations which haunt thesestreets
at nigtt 'ptatiQns from which he
hi. skudder,
| but w3t.ch ~ imin-
ished power Of resistance. - you
done that young man any good ~
taking from him what he held sacred
before? Have you not left him moral
| ly weakened? From sneering at
religion it is but q step to
sneering at morality, and then
but one step more to vic
ious and prohigate career. How are
! you going to stop this tendency?
When you have stripped him Of for
mer restraints, do you leave him any
thing in their stead, except indeed a
sense of honor, self-respect and self-in-
terest? t?-worthy motives, no doubt,
but all too feeble to withstand the
fearful temptations that assail him.
Is the chance of his resistance as good
as it was before2 Watch him as he
goes along that street at midnight.
He passes by the places fevil resort,
of drinking and gambling those open
mouths of hell; he hears the SOUND of
music and dancing, and for the FIRST
time pauses to listen. How long win
it be before he viii venture in2
With such dangers in his path, it is
q grave responsibility to loosen the
restraints which hold such young
man to virtue. Thesegibes and sneers
which you utter so lightly, may have
O. sad echo in lost character and a
wretched liie Many young man
has been thus taunted until he has
| pushed of from the shore, under the
idea of gaining bis ''liberty and ven
tured into the rapids, only to be car
ried down the stream, and left a wreck
in the whirlpool below!
4 ~